Hey prop,
Yeah I have used Wendler’s 5/3/1 method with a few of my clients for most of this year, but not following wendler’s program to a tee. Is it the high reps on his assistance work that you are worried about or on the main lifts?
I’ve mainly used his percentages and incorporated them into a westside style program on their max effort days and they have all been getting really great strength gains. He states that for the first couple of months, starting them off 10% lighter than what his 1RM formula cacluates and always rounding down all the weights instead of up (when using his percentages) is best, and this has so far worked really well.
I find it a little easier with the less experienced guys as most of their lifting is done without my supervision and getting them to learn the techniques of all the various max effort lifts associated with the westside method can be a little slow.
So far I have only used it with back squat standing press and flat bench press but I am planning on rotating the exercises each month and using the 5/3/1 percentages, ie. month 1 – Good morning varitaion/close grip incline bench, month 2 – Deadlift variation/floor press, month 3- squat variation/press variation – so they can perfect their techniques on the various max effort lifts with the eventual aim of rotating their lifts every 1-3 weeks as per the westside method.
I haven’t had a chance to implement his full program yet but I would be interested to know how it goes. The volume on his assistance exercises seems to be very high to me but I guess it depends on what you’re traning for.
Tom have you read his book? What are your thoughts on it?
Cheers!
Dan